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Writings about art and creativity can be traced to the texts of classical antiquity, but aesthetics as a separate and systematic area of philosophy is almost wholly a product of the 18th century. This is a collection of the less well-known 18th-century aesthetics texts.Read more...

Vol 1: "Two Discourses" (1719), Jonathan Richardson, 472pp. Vol 2: "Two Dissertations Concerning Sense and Imagination" (1728), 239pp. Vol 3: "A Dialogue on Beauty. In the Manner of Plato" (1731), George Stubbes, 63pp.; "A Dialogue in the Manner of Plato, On the Superiority of the Pleasures of the Under-standing to the Pleasures of the Senses" (1734), George Stubbes, 138pp; "Crito; or a Dialogue on Beauty" (1752), Joseph Spence, 63pp. Vol 4: "Letters Concerning Taste" (1755), John Gilbert Cooper, 159pp; "Essays - Read to a Literary Society...On the Influence of Philosophy Upon the Fine Arts, etc." (1759), James Moor, 184pp. Vol 5: "An Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting - and into the Merits of the Most Celebrated Painters, Ancient and Modern" (3rd ed.,1769), Daniel Webb, 216pp.; "Observations on the Correspondence Between Poetry and Music" (1769), Daniel Webb, 162pp. Vol 6: "Clio - or, A Discourse on Taste - Addressed to a Young Lady" (1809), James Usher, 263pp. Vol 7: "Critical Essays...Observations on the Sublime of Loginus, etc." (1770), Richard Burnaby Greene, 343pp. Vol 8: "The Four Ages - Together With Essays on Various Subjects" (1798), William Jackson, 458pp.